Venâncio E et al. (2022), Reproductive Biology of the Sea Cucumber Holoth...

ECB-ART-50308

Biology (Basel) 2022 Apr 19;115:. doi: 10.3390/biology11050622.

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Reproductive Biology of the Sea Cucumber Holothuria mammata (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea).

Venâncio E , Félix PM , Brito AC , Azevedo E Silva F , Simões T , Sousa J , Mendes S , Pombo A .

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Holothuria mammata is one of the most valuable species of sea cucumber, as well as one of the main target species harvested in the Mediterranean and NE-Atlantic regions. This study aims to describe the reproductive cycle of H. mammata in a coastal area of southwest Portugal. Monthly samplings were carried out for 19 months, with the concomitant collection of environmental data and biometric data. H. mammata had a sex ratio of 1:1.2 (male:female) and a size at first maturity of 142 mm for males and 167 mm for females. The gonadosomatic index (GI) peaked between April and May for both sexes. Gonad development started when days had a shorter photoperiod (9 to 13 h of sunlight) and lower seawater temperature (<15 °C), and spawning occurred later, with longer photoperiod (13 to 15 h of sunlight) and higher seawater temperature (>15 °C) and chlorophyll-a concentrations. The development of new studies to increase the biological and ecological knowledge of the populations of H. mammata is essential to create conditions for the domestication of broodstock in captivity, to allow the development of fishing regulations based on informed decisions and to create precise measures for the conservation of ecosystems.

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References [+] :

Acosta, Ecological and reproductive characteristics of holothuroids Isostichopus badionotus and Isostichopus sp. in Colombia. 2021, Pubmed, Echinobase

	Figure 1. Sex ratio (%) separated by sex and month, representative of the population of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal.
	Figure 2. Monthly means (Â± SD) of the Gonadosomatic index of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal. Different letters (a and b) indicate statistical differences between males and females at a significance level of 0.05.
	Figure 3. Microscopical characteristics of gonad development stages of the females of Holothuria mammata. (A) Recovery stage (November 2018 sample); (B) Growing stage (March 2019 sample); (C) Mature stage (May 2019 sample); (D) Spawning stage (June 2019 sample); (E,F) Post-spawning stage (August 2018 sample). CT: connective tissue; DO: developing oocyte; GW: gonad wall; L: lumen; MO: mature oocyte; NO: Non-spawned oocyte P: phagocytes; PVO: previtellogenic oocyte; RO: relict oocyte.
	Figure 4. Microscopical characteristics of gonad development stages of the males of Holothuria mammata. (A) Recovery stage (November 2018 sample); (B) Growing stage (April 2019 sample); (C) Mature stage (May 2019 sample); (D) Spawning stage (June 2019 sample); (E,F) Post-spawning stage (October 2018 sample). CT: connective tissue; GW: gonad wall; L: lumen; NS: non-spawned spermatozoa; P: phagocytes; PS: primary spermatocytes; S: Spermatozoa; SC: spermatocyte columns.
	Figure 5. Temporal allocation of gonad development stages in females (A) and males (B) of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal. IâRecovery; IIâGrowing; IIIâMature; IVâSpawning; VâPost-spawning.
	Figure 6. Frequency of maturation stages and average thickness of the gonad wall of males (A) and females (B) of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal. IâRecovery; IIâGrowing; IIIâMature; IVâSpawning; VâPost-spawning.
	Figure 7. Monthly distribution of oocyte diameter in size classes (January 2018âJuly 2019) of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal. n = number of females; D = mean diameter Â± SD.
	Figure 8. Temporal pattern of environmental factors and Gonadosomatic index of Holothuria mammata in the coastal area of the NE-Atlantic in southwest Portugal. (A) Chlorophyll-a, (B) Photoperiod, (C) Seawater temperature.
	Figure 9. Cross-correlation between the Gonadosomatic index of Holothuria mammata and environmental factors, with different time lags. The blue line indicates a significance level of 0.05.
	Figure 10. Diagram representing the concomitant evolution of the maturation stages in Holothuria mammata and the environmental parameters significantly correlated with the Gonadosomatic Index. Recovery (I); Growing (II); Mature (III); Spawning (IV).
	Figure 11. Size at first maturity for (A) Females and (B) Males of Holothuria mammata, where the L50 (dashed red line) represents the length at which a randomly chosen specimen has a 50% chance of being mature. The fitted values for the logit regression are based on a frequentist GLM and a non-parametric bootstrap method. The solid blue lines represent the proportion of mature by length. The confidence intervals (95%) are represented by dashed blue lines.